you take the gun (or you pull out a bigger one)
by she.daydreams.in.colour
Summary: Conference call at eight thirty, deposition at nine, settlement meeting at ten. It's an ordinary morning for top gun lawyer Klaus Mikaelson – until he spots a bouquet of flowers awaiting delivery to Caroline Forbes with a hand-written card that reads 'Dinner tomorrow? - Marcel'.


Note: For Abby. :)

Note 2: This might not be at par with my earlier fics and I apologize for that, but this is the first story that I finished in a long long long while and I'm really working to get in the writing groove again. :)

-o-

**you take the gun (or you pull out a bigger one)**

_What are your choices when someone puts a gun to your head? You take the gun, or you pull out a bigger one. (Harvey Specter, Suits)_

.04 seconds.

It's the default play time per gif-animation frame if you import videos into layers in Photoshop CSwhatevernumberitisnow. The length of time by which the Florida Department of Transportation increased yellow light duration, supposedly in an effort to curb rear-end collisions at stoplight intersections. The time left on the game clock when Derek Fischer fired that clutch jumpshot which handed the LA Lakers the Western Conference crown in '04, thank you very much Mr. Fischer for screwing over this author's beloved Mavs, she swears she is over it and is no longer angry at you.

And on this sunny Thursday morning at the eternally bustling Chase Tower office of the Mikaelson & Salvatore law firm, it takes exactly .04 seconds for top gun corporate lawyer Niklaus Leventhorpe-Rath Mikaelson to spot the very pretty bouquet of purple hyacinths and white roses being turned over to reception as he strides into the office hallway - along with the handwritten-card which message promptly makes the lawyer's aristocratic brow crease into a frown.

You probably wouldn't feel the annoyance seething from Attorney Mikaelson as he very suavely thrusts his cup of morning americano into the hands of some innocent junior associate who happens to be passing by. (Hey, at least nobody gets rushed to the hospital for second-degree burns.) But you'd know that something is going on the moment you see him abandon the rectilinear path to the executive elevators, instead turning to his right and walking towards the front desk.

"Hello love. It's Carmen, right?" he greets the receptionist charmingly.

Actually the girl's name is Camille, but she's been at Mikaelson & Salvatore long enough to know that Klaus Mikaelson calls you whatever the heck he wants to call you, so yeah.

"How may I help you, Mr. Mikaelson?" comes the dutiful reply.

"Are those for Ms. Forbes?"

"Yes Sir, I'll have them sent -"

"I'll take those then."

And Camille O'Connell can't do anything but stare helplessly from her seat as Klaus confiscates the bouquet with a quick grab of his hand, because the package is clearly addressed to Ms. Forbes– but it's not like she can whack the founding partner's son and declare "That's for Ms. Forbes, give it back you utterly debonair douchenozzle!", can she?

Attorney Mikaelson for his part doesn't spare as much as a single bat of an eyelash back at Ms. O'Connell and immediately steps into the first elevator that frees up for a ride to the 43rd floor, never mind that it's not an executive lift. Boy, isn't it his co-passengers' lucky day: everyone is treated to the literally indescribable view of one of the most successful lawyers in Chicago staring hostilely at the gorgeous floral arrangement he's gripping in his hands, as though it's a baseball bat that he intends to clobber someone with.

Props to Sage Leroux-Mikaelson and her people at the Human Resources Department of Mikaelson & Salvatore for hiring bright employees, lawyers and staff alike. Every single person in the crowded contraption is wondering what the fuck is up with Klaus and those flowers, but all of them know better than to say anything and correctly choose to suffer in awkward silence instead of risking their lives to ask. (First-year associate Jeremy Gilbert later swore under the penalty of perjury that it was the worst elevator ride he ever had in his life.)

Ding!

Elevator button 43 finally lights up. Still, nobody moves – seriously, not even a flinch - save for Klaus, who closes his eyes for a good half second before letting out a deep but almost inaudible breath. And when he allows the world see his adorable baby blues again, there is no longer any trace of the frown he wore merely seconds ago; in its place is a smug smile conveniently plastered across his handsome face.

Attorney Mikaelson smoothly steps out of the elevator, proceeding to make his way to the nice little office down the hall with the glass panel wall that reads 'Caroline Forbes – Senior Associate'.

Only then is a collective sigh of relief finally heard from the poor peasants behind the closing elevator doors.

-o-

"But abuse of dominant position isn't tantamount to monopoly and therefore not expressly a violation of the Sherman Act, the principal offenses of which are only monopoly and conspiracy to restrain trade."

"True, Kol, but the FTC or the Justice Department can easily claim misuse of existing dominant position to attempt to establish a monopoly, which is a felony antitrust offense under Section 2 of the Sherman Act."

"Ugh. Punishable by fine not exceeding one hundred million dollars if a corporation and one million dollars if an individual."

"Or imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or both, if tried in criminal court, and treble damages if tried in civil court."

"Hah..."

"Huh?"

"We're running out of arguments to defend this one, aren't we?"

Caroline Forbes' Libertine-glossed lips curl into an amused smile as she watches Kol Mikaelson bite casually into the cap of his neon-green highlighter, the way he always does when he's pretending to think but really just feels too bored to give a shit. It's almost funny, really - the guy is awfully brilliant, testing for an IQ of 153, scoring a perfect 180 in his LSAT and graduating third in his class at Harvard – all while spending more time experimenting with rolling pins and piping tips than reading Law journals.

Goodness knows where the world would be if Kol wasn't so academically disinclined.

"There is no 'we', Kol. It's the mock trial for first-year associates. I'm not even supposed to be helping you."

"And yet here you are." Pretty Boy replies with an impish grin.

"Because you came into my office with a box of my favourite key lime cupcakes asking if I could play the part of your defense witness and then somehow chatted me up until the topic became -"

The glass panel door opens. In comes Klaus, bouquet of mondial whites and violet hyacinths in hand, smiling like he's Michael Buble in the Just Haven't Met You Yet video.

"Nik?" Kol greets slash asks his brother.

The look on the younger Mikaelson's face can be described as equal parts happy and confused. On one hand, Nik is one of the most brilliant corporate lawyers in the entire city (the entire country, if Kol dares) and Kol could definitely use his help. (Now whether Nik would actually help him out – that's a different discussion.) On the other hand, why is he here at Caroline's office... with a bouquet of flowers?

Oh dear Lord. Is he finally -

Klaus takes one look at the file folder on Kol's lap and tilts his head at Caroline. "Is it that time of the year again?"

"Uh-huh."

"Let me guess. He's here because he doesn't want to spend time in the library. Do your own research, turd."

Kol reels back in surprise. Well of course he didn't expect his brother to go all Good Samaritan, but 'turd'?

Did Nik really just use the word 'turd'?

"Okay..." Kol replies uncertainly. "How about you, Nik? You're here because...?"

For a split second he thinks he sees an almost imperceptible twitch in his brother's left eye. But then Klaus plops into the wing chair opposite Caroline and he's all smug and swag again.

"Just to drop off a special delivery." Klaus says, plucking the small white card from the bouquet and reading the hand written message aloud. "Caroline, dinner tomorrow? - Marcel."

The neon-green highlighter tumbles down unceremoniously down to Kol's lap. Caroline continues to smile at Klaus, but she doesn't say anything as he nonchalantly sets the precious floral arrangement on her work table.

"I didn't know you were seeing Marcel Vigneron." the older Mikaelson remarks with mock amusement, lacing his tapered fingers together. "Is his nitro-puffed rice any good?"

"Do you really want to do this with Kol in here?"

"_- er, do what - "_

"The walls are glass, he can lip-read, it won't make much of a difference if we send him out, would it?" Klaus simply drawls in reply, paying no attention to his younger brother whose head is dramatically flicking from him to Caroline in an attempt to look as innocently confused as he possibly can.

Caroline rolls her eyes before glaring at Klaus in disbelief. "Oh God, Niklaus Mikaelson. You are unbelievable -"

"Good, at least that makes the feeling mutual. Because for my part I can't believe you're seeing Marcel Gerard."

A hapless cringe finds its way into Kol's face, and it's really the only reaction he can have with that confirmation.

See, Marcel Gerard, recently promoted to senior partner at Tunde and Dubois, happens to be the only lawyer to bank more than one win over Klaus in the courtroom, sparking a now well-known rivalry between the two men that has since extended to their respective law firms. When Klaus and Marcel go head to head at a trial, the entirety of Chicago's law community literally pauses from whatever it's doing to watch. The score is currently tied at 3-3 and Kol actually knows someone who bet ten grand on Marcel beating Klaus at the ongoing -

"You know, if you just wanted to date someone with a senior partner title, then you should've gone for Elijah." Klaus says casually, helping himself to one of the key lime cupcakes in the box on the table and biting into the tart treat. He lazily licks the cream cheese frosting that smudges his lip as he reclines on the couch. "He's more dapper in a suit, has a nicer car, and he has way more fabulous hair."

The blonde glares at him even harder. "Oh come on, Klaus, let's not subject each other to crap. I assume you didn't deliver these flowers yourself solely out of the goodness of your heart."

"How did Marcel get you to agree to go out with him anyway? I sincerely hope it took more than key lime cupcakes."

"I'm very sorry to disappoint you, but actually it took just one glass of Mosel Riesling over lunch."

"And was this before or after I planted my boot in his ass at the Argent-Hale negotiation?"

"I don't know, Marcel doesn't really talk about you when we go out. Maybe he's not as in to you as you'd like him to be."

"Caroline, love, of course he won't talk about me. I highly doubt he'll be doing himself any favours by telling you that I got Chris Argent to pay Hale Corporation $20M for a settlement."

"Oh, but he didn't talk about you after he _won _the Stilinski Enterprises case against you last month either."

"A verdict that's been appealed and I am absolutely certain will be overturned in the near future."

"Good for you."

"'Good for you', is that all you have to say?"

"What else do you want me to say?"

"Let me see..." Klaus squints his eyes and pretends to think. "That Elijah's hair is shinier than yours? That you think about my dimples every night before you go to sleep? But given the fact that I know you'd rather take your chances swallowing a whole key lime than saying either of those things, I'll settle for why you didn't tell me that you're going out with Marcel."

Kol looks back at Caroline curiously, and the blonde shakes her head in hopeless exasperation. "It didn't occur to me that I had to ask for your permission to go out with someone. Is that a new addendum to the firm's by-laws?"

"Does the founding partner know that a senior associate in his firm is dating a senior partner at the rival firm?"

The younger Mikaelson's eyes widen. Wow, Nik must really be pissed if he's playing the Daddy Card, because Nik _never _plays the Daddy Card.

Caroline doesn't even blink. "Oh the founding partner is immensely pleased. After all, Mikael introduced us."

"What?" two Mikaelson voices exclaim simultaneously.

A small, fond smile forms on the blonde's lips. Klaus would have been relieved if he'd seen the tiniest bit of smugness in Caroline's expression, because that would mean she's trying to rile him up - but all he sees is an air of unmistakable appreciation, as if Caroline was reliving the happiest moment of her life… and all of a sudden the Klaus' palms feel cold, his stomach turns and he feels like he wants to throw up his ostrich steak lunch from two freakin' weeks ago.

"We attended the Laheys' fundraising luncheon, Mikael saw Marcel, he asked me if I've had the chance to meet the nemesis to the great Niklaus Mikaelson. I said no, he walked up to Marcel and introduced us."

Kol winces slightly as he turns to look at his older brother, and the slight wince turns into a full cringe when he sees that Klaus is just staring wordlessly at Caroline after her Mikael Mikaelson: Millionaire Matchmaker revelation. Nik has always been vocal when it comes to his thoughts and emotions – if he doesn't like something he'll tell you upfront that he doesn't like it – so the fact that he's silent right now, even though it's painfully obvious from his constipated-looking expression that he does not like the Caroline-Marcel situation, is totally alarming.

"Uh, Nik –"

He doesn't even have the time to finish the statement. His brother takes one last look at Caroline, whose own blue-green eyes firmly meet Nik's baby blues every millimeter of the way.

And then Niklaus Mikaelson stands up and leaves.

-o-

"You set her up with Marcel?"

Attorney Mikael Rhys Mikaelson, founding and managing partner of the law office of Mikaelson and Salvatore, looks up from the sixty-page case brief he had been busy reading all morning and stares uncertainly at the rather… er, amusing, sight of his middle son Klaus barging into his office with the biggest scowl his handsome face could hope to accommodate. Behind Klaus was Slater, Mikael's executive secretary, looking utterly horrified but completely helpless at the fact that an infuriated junior partner just stormed into the big boss' office without a pre-scheduled appointment; and to make it even worse, there's the tiny little detail about the said junior partner being the big boss' own son.

"Attorney Mikaelson – Klaus – I'm sorry, you can't -"

The older Mikaelson sighs, quietly putting the case brief down and ending his secretary's mortification with a quick assurance of "It's alright, Slater, you may return to your desk." before ever so casually raising an aristocratic brow as he finally turns to his middle son.

"Good morning to you too, Niklaus. Pray take a seat and tell me what's gotten your knickers in a twist."

The younger Mikaelson snubs the invitation, scowling even harder at his father, and from his table thirty feet away Slater could swear that smoke was coming out of Klaus' ears.

"Why the hell did you do that? You know perfectly well that I –"

"That you're an arrogant, intractable, unrelenting heck of a bloke who -"

"No, no, you don't get to change the subject, you owe me an answer and God knows that I'm going to get it out of you if I have to sue you myself. You know about me and Caroline, so why the bloody hell did you set her up with Marcel?"

A small smile forms upon Mikael's lips at the sound of Caroline Forbes' name, even though he already knew what the rage was about the moment Klaus stormed in and mentioned 'her and Marcel'. Lord, he never thought the day would come when he would see his decidedly shrewdest son fly into hysterics over a girl. It's almost… adorable.

(For a good six seconds he actually mulls over whether it's a good idea to take a picture so he could show it to his wife later, but his trusty old cerebrum advises against it.)

"Well I merely introduced Caroline to Marcel. Wherever they took that introduction afterwards was all up to them." The older man states matter-of-factly. "And while we're on the charming topic of you and Ms. Forbes, do tell me what you two are. Because I don't, for the life of me, understand where all this ire is coming from."

"'Don't give me that 'Don't understand' crap. You're Mikael Mikaelson, you never do anything without a purpose. You know – you've always known, you always know –"

"I know what? That you hold some form of rarely-accorded regard for Ms. Forbes? As far as I'm aware, she's not committed to anyone, and she can… let's put it this way, _befriend _another lawyer from the firm down the street if that's what she wants to do. So really, Niklaus, I don't understand where all this ire is coming from."

Klaus' eyes widen in an exasperating mix of frustration, indignation and downright infuriation – and yet all color drains from his anger-reddened face when he suddenly finds himself unable to give a coherent reply.

Mikael keeps his silence, lacing his fingers together as he allows his son to compose himself. For the record, it's true that the Mikaelson patriarch has always known about Klaus and Caroline's short history – as does every other member of the Mikaelson family, thanks you Kol and Kol's… er, eagerly informative speaking faculties. According to the youngest Mikaelson son's sworn affidavit, Klaus 'appeared' to like Caroline, she 'allegedly' reciprocated his attentions, she 'purportedly' spent the night at his apartment once, and it was confirmed beyond doubt by virtually every person who came within ten feet of Klaus Mikaelson's radius that he did not do anything that could be construed as pursuit afterwards. Since Mikael never heard anything about it again he just assumed that it was one of those casual happenstances that you shrug off and basically forget ever happened the very next morning - it was almost six months ago, for Harriet Myers' sake, how on earth was he supposed to know that Klaus would react this way to Caroline seeing another guy?

"Look, son." Mikael quietly begins. "You're right. I introduced them on purpose, and I regret what ill sentiments my actions have caused you. But Marcel came to me at the fundraiser and asked if I could acquaint him with Caroline, and knowing both of them I thought them a fine fit for each other so I obliged. If I'd known that you carry a torch for her I wouldn't have done it, for all that I believe Marcel is the better man for Caroline right now."

The younger Mikaelson's eyes snap back at his father, only to deliver a dagger-sharp glare, which, though brimming with vitriol, still fails to conceal the confused resentment clearly reflected in his blue eyes.

"I told you, Niklaus. You're ambitious, you're driven, you're relentless. You set decisive goals and you don't stop until you accomplish those goals, even at the expense of nearly everything else."

"Is there a point to this or did you simply decide that today is Bash Your Son Day?" Klaus answers back.

"I'm not insulting you, in fact I approve of those qualities for all that I posses them myself. But tell me, Niklaus. Is being with Caroline among your goals?"

…

An avalanche of silence swallows the entire room.

Klaus freezes on the ground he's standing on looking like he got stabbed in the stomach with a ski pole, and it's a good six seconds before the lawyer is able to utter a weak "…What?"

"Is being with Caroline among your goals?" Mikael repeats, kinder this time, and his eyes soften when he sees how taken aback Klaus is with his question. The man had won every single mock trial he'd been part of since prep school, answered one hundred seventy nine out of one hundred eighty bar exam items correctly, and smooth-talked thirty two new clients into two billion dollars worth of revenues for the firm – but now he can't answer a yes or no question about a girl.

"Because I know what kind of person you are. The moment you started working for me you had your sights set at becoming the youngest senior partner this firm has ever seen, and for the last four years you've stopped at nothing to get it. This year you knew you were getting that checked off your list, so you moved on to becoming the best corporate lawyer in this city and that's why you're hell-bent on beating every other lawyer who gets in your way. Now if you truly wanted to be Caroline, then you would've done something to keep her and you wouldn't have stopped until her last name was Mikaelson as well."

The junior partner's face falls.

"That fact that you're responding this way to the knowledge that she is seeing another man implies that you do feel for her. But the fact that you never did anything to pursue her means that at this point in time, there are things that you feel warrant your time and effort more than being with Caroline Forbes. There's nothing wrong with that." Mikael concludes.

"And Marcel is better for Caroline just because he mustered the nerve to go after her and I didn't?"

"No. Marcel is better for Caroline because right now they seem to be on the same page about what they want. One way or another you were obviously of the opinion that it was not the time for you to be significantly involved with someone. Marcel made the effort to get acquainted with Caroline and become a figure in her life, and she accepted him so both of them appear to share an opinion different from yours."

Klaus swallows soundlessly, and he can't help but feel a little dizzy upon hearing what Mikael just said. On paper his father's conclusion made logical sense, and his pride jumped for joy at the statement that he didn't let a woman interfere with his life and everything that he had set to achieve for himself. But he somehow couldn't acknowledge that it was all true.

And how could he? He'd buried himself in work and drink in an attempt to avoid thinking about it, acted as careless and indifferent as he could pitifully manage, and more than once tried to get into bed with some of the most beautiful women in the face of Chicago hoping that he could convince himself that Caroline Forbes meant nothing. _Because Caroline Forbes is supposed to mean nothing_. But at the end of the day…

"It's not that I don't… It's just…" The younger man mutters disjointedly before he even realizes that he's talking aloud.

_He's stammering_, Mikael thinks, and despite all the sympathy that he feels for his son he can't help but swell with a warm kind of happiness. For thirty years he has been both a parent and a mentor to Klaus, but this is the first time the young man ever had a conversation this emotional with him.

"But I want –"

And the wise father looks at his son straight in the eye, stopping him before he can get all the words out, because he already knows how the sentence will end.

"Well, I'm not the person you should be telling that to, am I?"

The founding partner of Mikaelson & Salvatore reclines back on his chair, watching his son closes his eyes and run a tired hand through his ash blonde hair, as though he had finally realized what the blue skies overhead Chicago had known all along.

Sometimes when you fall so hard, you barely even realize how wrecked you already are until you try to stand up and walk again only to find out that you can't.

Klaus takes a moment to take a deep breath in before clearing his throat, straightening his Skobeloff tie, and, with only a small nod of both gratitude and apology towards his father, heading out the door. The old man is right. He should be saying those things to someone else, he should've said them to her a long time ago.

"Niklaus?"

The young lawyer stops, pausing briefly to look back at his father.

"That's seven thousand five hundred dollars. I'll send the bill to your secretary."

"What?"

"You took fifteen minutes, my hourly rate is thirty grand."

"You're billing me for talking to you?" Klaus exclaims in disbelief. Rule Number One for the Mikaelson children working in Mikaelson & Salvatore has always been that from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon, Mikael is managing partner and they are his lawyers, but… "You're my father!"

Mikael just laughs. "You really should've made an appointment."

-o-

Truth be told, there are days when Caroline Forbes wonders why she ever let herself be involved with Nikalus Mikaelson. On those days she likes to think that maybe someone had mistakenly slipped a hallucinogenic pill on her dinnertime Haut-Brion or something, because that has to be the only plausible explanation about why she agreed to go out with him.

Thanks to over three years of working at Salvatore and Mikaelson and two years of being Kol's food trip buddy, Caroline knew exactly who Klaus Mikaelson was - he was inherently intelligent and he didn't shy away from gloating about it in front of the people whom he knew hated the fact; he was ambitious and worked painstakingly and almost single-mindedly to achieve whatever lofty goal he set for himself; he was capable of being helpful and cooperative if it benefited him and the firm but was viciously competitive otherwise. And most of all, he was ravishingly handsome but would rather choke himself to death with his countless array of Armani neckties than to admit genuine affection for any of the many women he infamously dallied with.

The first three statements made Klaus intriguing, but with the last item being said, Caroline has absolutely no idea why she didn't do anything when after two months of closely working together on an acquisition the founding partner's dashing middle son started hinting at a more than platonic attraction to her. Or why she even let herself admit that the feeling was mutual. Most of all, she has no idea why let him take her home on that fateful night almost six months ago, and why before she closed her eyes and slept with her head tucked in his chest she even allowed herself to feel that she had a… _different_… connection with him.

Apparently she did not. Klaus wasn't even there when she woke up in the morning - he'd jetted off to some mysterious London business and had no communication with her whatsoever for the next two weeks. When he finally came back he acted as though nothing ever happened between them, and during a firm event the next night he even had the nerve to nod at her casually before leaving the hotel ballroom with a clingy redhead model in tow.

For the next few months Klaus didn't make any effort to reach out to her on any remotely emotional level, although he didn't completely ignore her either; he acknowledged her with a short tilt of his head whenever they bumped into each other, was never distant or awkward around her, and in the few times when they had to work together on the same case he was nothing other than professional.

She understood what he was saying with his actions instantly. What they had was a one time thing, and now that it was over Klaus was all for going back to what they were before it happened - two lawyers who happened to work at the same firm.

Caroline had never been the type to chase after a guy who obviously wasn't into her, and thus she fell back into normal life soon enough. Even though Kol pointed out on more than one occasion that she was eating more chocolate than usual.

"You know what chocolate is rich in?" Kol asked her once. "Serotonin. And you know what serotonin does? It acts as an inhibitor to cellular and neural activity so you perceive less pain when you're hurt."

They had managed to work with and around each other without being uncomfortable for the past five months, and Caroline did believe wholeheartedly that the two of them were in a good place. So this – she doesn't know what to think of all this. Why Klaus was up on his feet the moment he learned that she was seeing Marcel, why he got upset enough to walk out like a five year old throwing a tantrum when she informed him that his own father set them up, and even more why about twenty minutes later he came back, quietly but firmly asked a very hesitant Kol Mikaelson to please give them some privacy, offered her an apology for what transpired earlier and told her determinedly that he wanted to talk.

"Klaus, I don't have anything against you…" Caroline worked up the courage to say amidst her confusion. "But I'm not sure if there's anything we need to talk ab-"

"No, Caroline, there's –"

"I really need to get back to –"

"Caroline -"

"Seriously, Klaus, I -"

"I love you."

…

"W-what?"

"You know what I said." Klaus simply tells the bewildered blonde. His hands are shaking and it's as if his lungs are sucking in the .09% of argon in the atmosphere instead of oxygen with the effort it takes to breathe and he literally can't even swallow for his life, but inside he feels an odd sense of calm. "And if you make me say it again I'll believe that it's because you want to hear it."

Caroline reels, feeling her throat run dry. "If this is a joke -"

"Would it console you if I said I wish it were? You know me and you know how difficult saying all this is. I don't like the idea that someone has the upper hand over me. But when I saw those flowers from Marcel it just…"

"No, you don't mean what you said. This is just you being your usual competitive self," Caroline declares, more to herself than to anyone, in a desperate urge to make sense of the situation. "You consider Marcel as competition, so now that you found out he wants to go out with me you want to beat him at it and –"

"You're wrong, I don't care who the bloody hell Marcel goes out with - as long as it's not you. Believe me, Caroline I –"

"Believe you? You want me to believe that you love me after you disappeared without as much as 'Bye I'm going to London' after you slept with me and when you came back you were with that red headed tramp and all those other girls after her –" the senior associate shrieks.

Klaus feels a thousand pin-point needles pricking at his chest, and his face turns into a pained expression of regret. "Yes, I picked up all those girls and the Lord knows how I tried to sleep with every single one of them. But I'm telling you, Caroline, it didn't happen. Because I thought of you and it didn't matter if it was for one second or for the entire night, but as soon as I thought of you I just couldn't do it."

"Oh now you're telling me that for more than a dozen times you got into a car with a girl and took her to your apartment and did God knows what else but you never ended up sleeping with her and for all of that girl's efforts to seduce the almighty Niklaus Mikaelson she simply got sent home in a cab?"

"No, I'm telling you that they didn't even make it into my apartment. I had Ray drive each on of them home and then I'd walk all the way back to my apartment even if it was thirty blocks away wondering if the misery would ever end or if I should just throw myself off a bridge or into a river or something."

"And by 'misery' you mean your supposed feelings for me. That's really romantic."

"By 'misery' I mean the things I feel for you that I never told you about. You can ask Ray, Caroline, and you know he won't lie. There were many women before you. But there were none after you."

The blonde shakes her head. "I don't know why you're doing this, Klaus, but please stop. We're in a good place now and there's nothing to gain from this."

"No." the Mikaelson said determinedly, unable to hold himself back from standing up and walking around the blonde's table, forcefully pulling her chair into him so he could look directly into the blonde's widened eyes.

If someone saw them like this it could certainly be grounds for at least four harassment cases against him, not to mention the chinwag that was sure to spread out through the entire legal community, but the truth was that he no longer cared about anything except the girl in front of him believing what he had to say.

"I have everything to lose because I might lose you. You think you don't mean anything to me because I did everything to convince myself that you don't mean anything to me. I was too arrogant – goddammit, I was _scared _– I didn't want to admit that there's someone who holds this much power over me."

"Klaus -"

"But you do mean something, Caroline. I'm swallowing every ounce of pride I have right now to tell you that you mean everything to me. I don't know exactly how or why but after that night I knew that I am in love with you and it was an absolute mistake that I tried to make myself believe otherwise because I just ended up hurting both of us. And when I saw you light up when you were talking about Marcel, it just tore the whole fucking dam open."

"…"

"I love you, Caroline Forbes. And I can't let you be with Marcel without letting you know that."

Caroline slowly looks up to stare right back at Klaus, and all too clearly she can see that the determination from his eyes could come from nothing else but the truth.

Oh, God. He loves her. He really does love her.

"Do you believe me?" Klaus says softly. He grips the arms of Caroline's chair harder, uncertain if he even has any strength left to stand after baring his soul to her.

She can't lie.

"…Yes."

The lawyer heaves a huge sigh of relief, and for the first time in the entire ten minutes that he had been in that office, he's able to breathe without gasping for air. Caroline believes him –and she would never have believed him if she didn't love him back.

"Then let's not waste any more time. Let's -"

But suddenly the blonde's hands ball into lap and she casts her eyes downward. "I'm sorry, Nik."

"It's not important, Caroline, the only thing that matters now is that we –"

"No, Nik, listen to me. I believe that you love me and you know I wouldn't be sitting in this room with you if I didn't feel anything for you anymore. But… I can't."

It's Klaus' turn to freeze, and his face instantly twists into an expression of horror as he reels back from the words he just heard Caroline say.

"What do you mean…you can't be with me?"

"… When you came back after you left for London… I just realized that… I don't know if this will work out in the first place."

"… so you can be with me… but you _don't _want to be with me."

"I… I'm not sure about anything right now."

"Don't tell me this is about Marcel -"

"No. I mean, maybe. It's hard to explain -"

"Do you love him?"

"Seriously Klaus, you know we've known each other for just a couple of weeks and you're asking me that?"

"Do you love me?"

The girl sighs almost painfully, but tries to keep a straight face. "I admire you because you're driven. Because you set high goals for yourself and you do everything to get those goals done. Because that part of you is a lot like the person that I've always strived to be – the first, the best. And I'll always look up to you for that."

"Caroline – just tell me why you don't want to be with me."

"I never explicitly said that." the senior associate protests, lifting her eyes to look at the man in front of her again.

"Then what are you saying?"

"That you're a person who has goals. It's just who you are, Klaus, you will always have goals. But I… I'm a person who has dreams."

Klaus' eyes soften. Dreams. He hasn't said that word in a long time.

"I want the prince who can kiss me and dance with me and see the world with me. I want the house with the white picket fence and the backyard barbecue and the crazy family with a dozen kids. I... I want the happily ever after ending." Caroline admits.

"Why would you think that you can't have all of that with me?"

"I'm not saying that I can't. It's just… would that have been what you wanted? If five years from now we have a baby and you lose a big client because they don't want a retainer who can't give them 100% of everything he has because he has to be both a father and the best lawyer in Chicago, can you honestly tell me that it wouldn't matter to you?"

The junior partner swallows soundlessly, his mind racing to find a safe middle ground for compromise because he knows that it would have mattered to him, and the fact that it did mattered to Caroline.

"We'll have to given and take when we make the choice. That's how life is when you're with someone."

"I know… but what if you can't give when I want to take, or I can't give when you want to take? Sometimes you just can't have both goals and dreams. And I never want to be the person who makes you choose between your goals or my dreams."

"Look, Caroline. I promise you that when the time comes when we'd have to make those choices, I'll be done with all these goals and I we won't have to think of anything else but _our _dreams." Klaus replies, truly believing what he said.

Caroline shakes her head again. "I want to believe that, but you know how law is in a place like this is. You think you're good when you catch the big fish, but there's always going to be bigger fish."

"And you're saying that Marcel doesn't have the same goals?"

"No. Or at least, not right now. When we're together, he barely even talks about his job. He talks about the things he's passionate about – music, food, travel, how he wants to open a Southern restaurant here someday and spend the entire day cooking ribs for the Tunde and Dubois staff." The blonde recalls fondly, though her voice is somewhat tinged with sadness. "He's like me, Nik. He has dreams."

"But just because that's what he tells you now it doesn't mean that you can be certain he'll stay the same."

"I not sure that he'll stay the same, the same way I'm not sure that you'll change five years from now." Caroline replies in all honesty. "That's why I'm not looking at what you can be in the future. I'm looking at what you are right now. And that's why I'm not sure if the two of us together will work."

Klaus clenches his hands furtively, refusing to believe what Caroline said. No, he can make it work. He would do anything short of murder to make sure that it worked.

Because he loves her and he has no doubt that she loves him as well, she's just trying to keep it inside because she thinks that it's not what's good for her, the same way he's done for so long.

He slowly goes down on one knee and looks at Caroline's eyes again. "We can make it work, Caroline. I'll prove it to you. I can't give you the family you want yet, but I can start with a commitment. You and Me. No one else. That's fair enough, isn't it?"

"Yesterday you didn't even have a reason to talk to me, thirty minutes ago you were throwing a tantrum over me seeing Marcel and now you're asking me to be your girlfriend?" Caroline says in pure incredulousness.

"Well, will you go out with me then? At the McCall Ball in New York, two weeks from now, and let the world know that you're the one woman who got to Niklaus Mikaelson and that he doesn't want to be without you ever again?"

"…I'm sorry, Klaus, I can't. Marcel asked me to be his plus one last weekend, and I already said yes."

She expects him to put his foot down in anger like he did earlier that morning, to persuade her to take her 'yes' back and go with him instead, to be every inch the bullheaded lawyer whom everyone knows him to be. Which is why Caroline is mildly surprised when Klaus simply sighs, and then even smiles at her weakly.

"Very well, love. I told you we'd have to give and take, so I suppose I'll be giving in on this one."

The blonde raises a brow. "You're giving in?"

"Yes," Klaus nods, and from where she's sitting Caroline can see that even after everything that's been said and done that morning, his blue eyes still hadn't lost the determination they showed when he came into her office for a second time fifteen minutes ago. "But remember that I'm giving in, not giving up. You go with Marcel next week. But you can't stop me from asking you out to lunch or picking you up or taking you to dinner today, or tomorrow, or every day after that, can you?"

"Lunch. With you. Every day. Are you sure you know what you're talking about?"

"I told you, Caroline. I'm going to do whatever it takes to show you that the two of us together can work. No matter how long it takes."

She's not certain why, but for a moment Caroline feels as if she's gone back to that night six months ago when she slept spooned up to Klaus, her head cradled in his arm and his chest pressing delightfully warm against her back. And again she feels that inexplicable pull that draws her towards him, as if they're bound by some unbreakable bond that she knows she will never really find the apt words to explain.

And somehow, for some reason, she finds herself wishing that Klaus was right.

For the first time that morning, she smiles at him, the way she used to smile at him before this became all messed up.

"Well, who are you going to take to the McCall Ball then?" she asks him cheekily.

Klaus returns the grin. "I have no idea. Perhaps you fancy giving me a suggestion?"

"How about that intern you were flirting with last week? Hayley, isn't it?"

"You can't be serious, love. You know I wasn't flirting with her, she was flirting with me. Why would I want to flirt with someone who can't even pass the bar? The only reason why she's even here is because that useless senior partner Plec is suffering from some kind of dreadful brain damage and thinks that the poor girl is a gift to the law community."

"Come on, Klaus, don't be mean. I heard she got the highest score on an exam last week."

"Did she?"

"Oh, yes, the mandatory STD test that's part of the firm's annual executive check-up. So for your own sake Attorney Mikaelson, I hope you were telling the truth when you said that there's been no one else after me."

-o-

_In the founding partner's office, ten minutes later:_

"So he told her about how he feels for her and she said she still has feelings for him, but she's not going to stop seeing Marcel?"

"Oh Dad, you know Caroline isn't daft. Just like with law, the case is weak if it's grounded on verbal declarations which in this case might even be considered inaccurate due to their emotional nature. She's letting Nik give it his best shot, and then she'll see what happens."

"Well, Caroline is free to see whoever she pleases after all… and by the way, Kol, these key lime cupcakes are absolutely delightful."

"Thanks Dad! I know how much you like them so I decided I should bring some when I tell you that I was thinking about signing up for this French pastry course at Wainwright but it's gonna take something like a month so I need your permission to go on a thirty-day leave –"

"THIRTY DAY LEAVE!"

"Er, never mind, change of topic – have I told you that Caroline is apparently attending the McCall Ball with Marcel?"

"The McCall Ball? Isn't your brother attending the event as well?"

"He is, which just makes it more exciting, doesn't it?"

"Well, I'm not entirely certain if exciting is the word I'd use… wait, what were you saying about that leave -"

"Huh? Leave? What leave? But honestly, do you really think that Nik'll just eat his heart out watching Marcel and Caroline be the cute and charming couple the entire evening while he most probably flies solo?"

"Knowing your brother I wouldn't be surprised if he finds a way to show up there with a TRO against Marcel for Caroline and then he'd just take her as his date himself."

"Haha, that is so Nik!"

"Well he probably won't pursue a measure that extreme, but I feel certain that he's not going to just sit there and watch them. He's going to do something to catch Caroline's attention _and _make Marcel know that he's not the only man pursuing Caroline."

"I don't know. I mean he did say he was going to give in that time, and won't doing something like that completely defeat the purpose of 'giving in'?"

"Trust me, Kol, I know your brother. Now that he's admitted to himself that he wants Caroline Forbes, he'll do everything he possibly can to be with her."

"Do you… want to bet on that?"

"…Oh, why not. Give me a number."

"Uh – ten grand."

"Do you have ten grand, Kol?"

"Well, not right now because I just bought a new ice cream maker, but… okay, how about this: if Nik does something about Caroline and Marcel at the McCall Ball, I'll make you a dozen boxes of those key lime cupcakes you like so much."

"That sounds agreeable."

"But if he doesn't, you give me permission to go on a thirty-day leave so I can attend that French pastry class."

"I knew you were serious about that thirty day leave! What kind of founding partner do you think agrees to let a first year associate go on a month-long leave?"

"Just one, Dad - the kind who loses a gentlemen's bet."

"Oh, alright. But don't blame me if you don't end up going on that pastry course."

-o-

A/N:

1. …Hi guys. :) I've been gone for so long and I don't know if you still know me – if you do recognize me and read this fic because you saw my name, I just want to say THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart, for all the love. :)

2. If you're one of the newer Klaroline fans, hello I'm Erica. You can find my gif's, manips and other pathetic attempts at social relevance at **erica-dreams-in-colour **at tumblr, and my long-forgotten multi-chapter fics at **she. dreams. in. colour **here at FFN. (Links are on my profile page.)

3. Last year was an emotional roller coaster for me, and I had to deal with a lot of things that left me with very little motivation to write or ship at all. This year, however, things appear to be a bit more positive, and I'm looking back to becoming an active member of the Klaroline fandom once again. :)

4. I am updating That I Give You Not My Hand But My Heart next, (2,200+ words so far according to Microsoft Word) and then Only Red Flames Live Here Now or Solstice. I have a 'The Alpha and His Mate' oneshot lined up for Caryn's birthday and a Klaroline!Gone With the Wind AU fic in the works as well; I'm posting and updating as much as I can this summer, so please look out for those in the near future. :)


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